It's no secret: to be successful with dropshipping, you need strong marketing strategies.
And you guessed it, that's where Instagram can play a crucial role.
Instagram is a platform used by over 500 million potential customers every day, so it's perfect for showing off your dropshipping products!
By the end of this guide, you'll know how to make the most of Instagram to grow your dropshipping store.
Let's start!
Why should you use Instagram for dropshipping?
You might wonder why you should use Instagram for your dropshipping store.
The answer is simple: Instagram is the 4th most popular social media platform in the world, and it’s amazing for marketing products.
Not only do millions of people use Instagram daily, but 62.7% of them also follow or research brands and products on the app.
This means your posts have a good chance of being seen and interacted with!
If you want fast results, paid advertising on Instagram is also an option.
You can create ads that look just like regular posts or stories. This makes them less intrusive and more likely to be seen by potential customers.
Instagram’s advertising tools let you target specific audiences, so you can reach the people who are most likely to be interested in your products.
You can then interact with your followers through comments and direct messages, which helps create a loyal customer base that is more likely to buy from you again and again!
If you're not fully convinced yet, check out this article to find nine more reasons why Instagram is so great!
Setting up your Instagram account
Now that you're ready to start using Instagram, it’s time to set up your account.
It's a simple process, but let's quickly walk through it nevertheless.
If you want to learn more, you can always read our in-depth article on creating and growing your Instagram profile here!
First, you need to create a business account.
This gives you access to features like Instagram Insights, Instagram Shopping, and the ability to run ads, and it also makes your account look more professional.
If you already have a personal account, you can easily switch it to a business account.
Here are the steps to follow:
- Sign up or log in. If you don’t have an Instagram account yet, download the Instagram app and sign up. If you already have one, just log in.
- Switch to Business. Go to your profile, tap the three lines in the top right corner, and select “Settings.” From there, tap “Account type and tools,” then “Switch to professional account,” and choose “Business.”
- Fill in your details. Enter your business details, such as email, phone number, and address.
Your profile is the first thing people see, so it needs to be impressive.
Here’s how to optimize it:
- Profile picture. Upload a high-quality file of your store's logo or favicon.
- Username. Choose a username that matches your store name exactly or as close as possible.
- Bio. Your bio is a short description of your business. Make it catchy and informative. You have 150 characters, so keep it concise. Mention what you sell and why people should follow you.
- Website link. Add a link to your dropshipping store. You can also use a tool like Linkpop to add multiple links, such as links to your products, blog, or other social media profiles. You can find 12 great examples of Linkpop links here!
- Set up story highlights. Over time, add story highlights to make your profile look even better. On Obvi's Instagram page below, these are the circles like "Anti-Aging," "Weight Loss," etc.:
With your Instagram account set up, you’re ready to start posting content!
What should you post?
There are various types of posts you can create for your new Instagram profile:
- High-quality product images. Your products are the stars of your dropshipping store, so show them off! Consider using props and backgrounds that highlight the product’s best features:
- Product videos. Videos can be more engaging than photos. Create short clips showing your products in use. Highlight their features and benefits!
- Customer photos and videos (UGC). When people see others enjoying your products, they’re more likely to buy. So, encourage your customers to share photos or videos of themselves using your products and repost these photos on your account (with their permission):
- Behind-the-scenes. Share photos or videos of your workspace, team, or the process of getting products ready for shipping (you could ask your dropshipping supplier for these). This humanizes your brand and builds a connection with your audience:
- How-to guides. Post tutorials related to your products. For example, if you sell kitchen gadgets, share recipes or cooking tips!
- Informative posts. Share interesting facts, tips, or news related to your industry.
Tip: You can use a tool like Later to schedule your posts in advance and ensure a good mix of content.
Looking for some more inspiration on what to add to your Instagram bio and what to post on your profile?
If so, check out these dropshipping Instagram account examples or these ecommerce Instagram account examples!
Note: If you're just starting and want to focus on paid Instagram ads, actively creating new posts for your profile is not as important. However, we recommend having at least nine high-quality posts on your account so that it doesn't look 'empty.'
Using Instagram for marketing your dropshipping store
In this section, we’ll discuss how to use Instagram to market your dropshipping store!
Instagram influencers
Instagram influencers are accounts that have built trust with their followers and can help you reach a larger audience.
The most popular Instagram influencer is Christiano Ronaldo, who has over 630 million followers.
If you want your brand featured on his Instagram page, you'll have to pay him over $3 million!
Luckily, there are millions of other Instagram influencers who will want to work with your store on a significantly lower budget.
You'll just have to find them!
You can find Instagram influencers for your dropshipping store on Instagram itself or using tools like Heepsy or Shopify Collabs:
A tip is to look for influencers who share content related to your niche.
If you sell fitness gear, find fitness influencers. Their followers will be more interested in what you offer.
Also, an influencer with a smaller but highly engaged audience can be more valuable than one with a large, passive following.
So, check their likes, comments, and the quality of their interactions!
A quick way to do this is by using Phlanx' engagement calculator, which also shows the average engagement rates based on the number of followers:
As you can see, this influencer has a very low engagement rate, so collaborating with them may not yield the best results (unless they ask for a crazy low rate).
Once you’ve found a potential influencer, send them a short DM.
Introduce your brand and explain why you think they’d be a great fit.
Be clear about what you expect from the collaboration. Will they post a photo, a video, or an Instagram story?
You should also discuss compensation, which can be free products, a payment, or a combination of both.
An example of an outreach message could be:
Hey [Influencer's Name],
Your style is amazing! We’re a new brand, [Your Store], specializing in [product].
We’d love to send you some items to feature on your page. Interested in a collaboration?
Cheers,
[Your Name]
Most influencers will post the shoutout on their feed, like here:
However, you can also ask them to post your product on their reels, highlights, or story:
As you can see, many brands give the influencer their own (small) discount code.
This not only gives their followers an additional reason to buy, but it also gives you the opportunity to measure the effectiveness of the cooperation!
If you're using Shopify, you can easily see how many times your discount codes have been used and how many sales they have generated:
With this data, you can easily compare the cost of the collaboration with the sales generated and determine if it’s worth repeating.
Instagram ads
Influencers are great for quickly building brand awareness and trust.
However, if you want precise control over your targeting and budget and the ability to scale quickly, Instagram Ads might be a better option.
Instagram Ads are paid promotions that appear in users’ feeds, Stories, Explore pages, and more. They look similar to regular posts but are marked as "Sponsored."
With Instagram ads, you have full control over the creative, targeting, and budget. They can also be scaled up or down easily based on performance.
However, it's not necessary to choose one over the other.
Many successful dropshipping stores use a combination of both influencers and ads.
For example, you can start with influencers to build credibility and then use ads to retarget their followers and reach new audiences.
What's also good to know is that there are various different ad types on Instagram.
For example:
- Photo ads. Single image ads that appear in the feed.
- Video ads. Short videos that can show your products in action.
- Carousel ads. Multiple images or videos in a single ad that users can swipe through.
- Story ads. Full-screen ads that appear between users’ Stories.
- Explore ads. Ads that appear on the Explore page where users discover new content.
To create Instagram Ads, you’ll use Meta Ads Manager (formerly Facebook Ads Manager).
This platform allows you to manage ads on both Facebook and Instagram, providing all the tools you'll need to optimize your campaigns:
You can start by:
- Creating an Ad Account. If you don't already have one, create an account on Meta Ads Manager.
- Connect your Instagram account. Link your Instagram account to Meta Ads Manager.
- Set up your campaign. Start by choosing your campaign objective (usually, it's conversions for dropshipping stores) and follow the steps after.
Imagine you have a dropshipping store that sells massage pillows.
Before creating your ads, it’s a good idea to see what your competitors are doing.
Use the Facebook Ad Library to search for ads related to massage pillows.
You can see what your competitors are running, including their visuals, copy, and CTAs. This tool is free and gives you insights into currently successful ads:
When setting up your ad targeting, it might seem logical to narrow down your audience to specific demographics.
However, in 2024, this is not necessarily the best strategy anymore.
Facebook’s algorithm is highly advanced and can automatically find the best audience for your ad.
By starting with a broad audience, you give the algorithm more data to work with.
As your ad runs, the algorithm learns which users are most likely to engage with and purchase your product. This continuous learning process improves your ad performance over time.
If you're running ads for the first time, start with a modest budget of around $10-$40 per day.
Use this budget to run several small campaigns, each using a different creative. This will help you identify what works best before scaling up.
Once you find an ad that performs well, gradually increase your budget. For instance, you can increase the budget every day by 50% if the ad continues to generate a good return on investment (ROI).
Here are three more of our favorite tips for Instagram ads:
- Use User-Generated Content (UGC). UGC adds authenticity and trust to your ads. If you don't have videos of your customers using your products, you can buy UGC videos from a platform like Billo:
- Focus on pain points. Address common pain points your audience might have, such as neck pain or stress. Highlight how your massage pillow can solve these issues and improve their well-being.
- Retargeting campaigns. Set up retargeting ads for people who have visited your website but haven’t made a purchase. Remind them of your product's benefits and offer an incentive to complete their purchase.
Since running paid Instagram ads is managed through Meta/Facebook, we won't cover it in too much detail here. If you want to learn more about it, check out our Facebook Ads guide here!
6 Tips for using Instagram for dropshipping
Here are six tips to help you make the most of Instagram for your dropshipping store!
1. Use lifestyle photos for product posts
Instead of posting plain product photos, show your products in real-life situations. This helps potential customers imagine using your product in their daily lives.
For example, if you sell vitamins for women, you can show how the product fits into their routine of getting ready for a night out:
These lifestyle photos make your products feel more relatable, demonstrate the benefits of your product in a natural way, and help build an emotional connection with your audience!
2. Collaborate with micro-influencers
Micro-influencers (those with 1,000 to 20,000 followers) often have highly engaged audiences.
That means collaborating with them can be very effective, even though their number of followers is relatively small!
For example, if you're selling products related to turtles, working with this Instagram account could be a great idea:
She currently has an engagement rate of 11.17%, which is very high!
Remember that you'll get the same engagement with these two influencers:
- Influencer A. 100k followers, 1% engagement rate.
- Influencer B. 10k followers, 10% engagement rate.
However, influencer B will likely ask for a lot less for collaboration than influencer A!
3. Post to Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels are short, engaging videos that can help you reach a larger audience.
You can post Reels that show your product in action, behind-the-scenes looks, or tips related to your niche.
Reels are favored by Instagram’s algorithm and often get more visibility than regular posts:
4. Do product research on Instagram
Product research on Instagram can be a goldmine for dropshipping!
For example, you can look up accounts of influencers to find products that they're actively promoting.
Or, you can look up hashtags to see what people are saying about specific products.
For example, if you sell skincare products, searching hashtags like #skincareroutine, #beauty, or #makeup can show you popular products:
To learn more about using Instagram for product research, take a look at Fabrizio's article here!
Shareable content is a great way to increase your reach on Instagram.
For example, you can create graphics that offer helpful tips, inspirational quotes, or interesting facts related to your niche.
Memes can also work super well, which are all about humor and reliability.
Here's an example of a meme that resonates with the audience and relates to the product sold:
6. Include closed captions
Adding closed captions to your videos is a simple way to make your content more engaging.
Many people watch videos without sound, especially on social media.
So, by including captions, you ensure that your message gets across even when the audio is off!
You can use (AI) video editing tools that automatically generate captions to save you time and effort. Just make sure to check the captions for accuracy.
Highlighting important words in your captions can also help keep viewers engaged:
Summary
Before we go to the conclusion, we've created a quick summary of this article for you, so you can easily remember it:
- Instagram is a popular platform for marketing a dropshipping or ecommerce store, with over 500 million daily users.
- Set up a business account to access features like Instagram Insights, Shopping, and ads.
- Post high-quality product images, engaging videos, user-generated content, and behind-the-scenes shots.
- Collaborate with micro-influencers to reach a highly engaged audience relevant to your niche.
- Use Instagram Ads through Meta Ads Manager for precise targeting and scalability.
- Add closed captions to your videos to ensure your message gets across, even without sound.
Conclusion
By now, you should have a solid understanding of how to use Instagram to grow your dropshipping store!
As a last tip, know that consistency and creativity are very important with Instagram.
Keep engaging with your audience, testing different content types, and refining your approach based on what works best.
Try Instagram now and see the difference it can make for your dropshipping business!
Want to learn more about Instagram?
Ready to make the most out of Instagram for your dropshipping store? Check out the articles below:
